Is There Really No Way...

[PhotriusPyrelus]

...to retrieve items from deep water?

[Jogo]

Deep water where? Middle of the ocean or closer to the shore?
Unlike other mechanics normally ruled by physics, free fall is implemented pretty convincingly in Valheim. If you're willing to put in the effort, you could build a platform tall enough to let you get stuff from pretty deep waters. The higher you climb, the lower you dip, and there is no fall damage if you land in water.

Other than that, the community will likely be able to tell you what mod you can use to get stuff back.
Or use the -console parameter to start the game and get familiar with 'devcommands' -- you can cheat pretty much anything back into the game.

[PhotriusPyrelus]

I don't want to cheat, it's not about getting the stuff back, it's about bad game design. If there's not going to be a reasonable way to retrieve items from deep water, then why don't all items float? And don't give me the realism argument. We grow crops in 2 days, and trees in a week, there's no seasons, and magic is very real. The game is ridiculously unrealistic in so many other ways, floating nails isn't going to be killing anyone's "immersion".

EDIT: Oh, and I can have a cargo container loaded with over 1000 pounds of metal, and that'll float. So don't tell me "muh realism" for sinking nails.

[Tachyon]

I used to use a mod where pressing Crouch enabled a bit of a dive. I've forgotten to install a mod for this, having just started playing again, so I must do that asap

[loppantorkel]

Originally posted by PhotriusPyrelus:

I don't want to cheat, it's not about getting the stuff back, it's about bad game design. If there's not going to be a reasonable way to retrieve items from deep water, then why don't all items float? And don't give me the realism argument. We grow crops in 2 days, and trees in a week, there's no seasons, and magic is very real. The game is ridiculously unrealistic in so many other ways, floating nails isn't going to be killing anyone's "immersion".

EDIT: Oh, and I can have a cargo container loaded with over 1000 pounds of metal, and that'll float. So don't tell me "muh realism" for sinking nails.

Not everything has to be convenient and not all things you don't agree with is bad game design.

Can you make a convincing argument for why some things shouldn't sink - beyond the minor inconvenience for you? I'm playing the same game and for me it's a game mechanic as any other things. Some things sink - meaning I need to take that into account. If I want all the loot from a sea serpent - then I need to work for it a bit more deliberately - aka 'good game design'.

[Draconifors]

The building and jumping into the water that was mentioned works pretty well, and it's also fun.

It's not bad game design to have items sink. The cargo containers floating even when full of metal is a pure convenience feature, and in no way invalidates the realism argument for most loose items sinking. Serpent meat somehow floats when the much smaller boar and deer meats do not, which makes it another convenience feature (no, the bones on boar and deer meat do not explain the difference).

[Nerevar]

its meant as a punishment mechanic. you dont wanna lose your ship in the middle of nowhere sea and get not punished for it with the loss of materials. same for nails sinking near shoreline. you wanna park your ship where its protected from attacks and dmg. not anywhere recklessly.

[Tanyon]

Use Valheim + mod. You can select items float. It's pretty awesome until they give us the ability to ACTUALLY swim/dive.

[Zep Tepi]

I second Valheim Plus, look for the "fixed" version since there was an update awhile back that messed up the original. You can make your stuff float, and do just about any other tweak you want, like automatically re-equiping your weapon when you get wet. Change as much or as little as you want. You could even make it more challenging if you prefer.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by PhotriusPyrelus:

I don't want to cheat

Without cheating, you can very carefully raise the ocean floor (sometimes, if not too deep) combined with jumping off a ladder tower (again, if able to construct one) and get stuff back. If its just nails, let it be. If its something of value, you can try to get it.
Normally the ONLY thing you can lose in deep water are the actual boat parts, the nails mostly. If you take something off and throw it in, and it sinks, ok, but that's on you for tossing it. Otherwise, items in your boat's hold float via the magic floating crates that broken boats (and carts) produce. Items on your person are on your grave, which also floats. The only way to lose anything besides nails is to place it on your ship deck or throw it in -- so its not as big a deal as you make it sound given that (outside bugs) the only thing you ever lose really are just nails, and maybe resin or something (?) that I am forgetting.

[knighttemplar1960]

There are a couple ways but they depend on shallow to moderate depth instead of deep water.

If the items are shallow but you can't reach them and you have rocks and your hoe you might be able to position yourself in such a way that you can raise terrain where the nails are. This might cause them to pop to the surface of the raised terrain and put them in reach. (I've also had it happen that doing this just buries the nails under the terrain).

If the water is deeper than you can reach you can jump off an object and the splash will carry you a bit deeper. Auto gather might be able to get the items. If the items are deeper than that you have to time your jump so that your cursor is positioned over the item just as you reach your deepest splash and press "E" to gather the items. (It will take multiple tries to get the position and timing down).

If you still can't reach you can use core wood to build a scaffold with standard wood for stairs to get a higher leap and a deeper dive. If that doesn't get you deep enough on splash down you won't be getting the sunken items back without using dev commands or a mod.